Forgive my camera/skills from back then.

I was doing a summer abroad program in Rhodes, Greece for 3 weeks (maybe I'll review this as well). We had a long weekend where we could go anywhere. We were deciding between Cairo and Istanbul. In retrospect, I was upset we didn't do Cairo since the Arab Spring occurred two years later, but then Istanbul got sketchy too. One of the guys on our trip was a bartender at a Marriott so we got a reduced rate at the new one built by the airport. Nice, but having your taxi checked for bombs before entering the parking area, and having airport luggage scanners as you enter the FRONT door was concerning.

Tips: Back then there wasn't Uber so we had to use cabs. Turks don't know a lot of English, so I suggest having your hotel write the directions to your hotel on a card to hand to a driver if not using Uber.

We start today with a high speed ferry from Rhodes pier to Marmaris, Turkey.

Turkey! Hand them $20 US and you're in

We then hired a local cabby to take us to Dalaman airport. I wish I had more photos of this as we stopped in his village to switch cars. On the way we started seeing mosques every where like you'd see churches here signaled we were in a different place. This airport was BFE and mostly empty. Caught Turkish Air from there to Istanbul Ataturk. Great flight. Everyone clapping when we landed was unnerving.

Highways built through the old city walls.

So many freighters waiting around, dozens. Later I read this was because of the global slowdown.

Entrance to the Grand Bizaar. Haggle central. A must do and an absolute labyrinth. I ended up buying a a hookah here.

This post was edited on 8/26/17 at 7:53 pm

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Posted by Teddy Ruxpin

Member since Oct 2006

39609 posts

Posted on 8/26/17 at 4:12 pm to Teddy Ruxpin

A lot of the cool stuff in Istanbul is very closely clustered together. The Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are about a football field apart from each other. There are some rooftop restaurants that grant a great view. The call to prayer occurs a few times a day, and its a hauntingly beautiful sound to hear as it flows through the air around the city.

Women must cover their legs entering the Mosque, and skirts and shawls are handed out to tourists entering.

Blue Mosque:

Tight squeeze to enter the chamber.

And we're in.

The Mosque is dome, upon dome, upon dome.

The prayer area for the Muslims off limits to tourists.

Leaving the Blue Mosque looking at our next site. The Hagia Sophia:

The Hagia Sophia. Completed in 537 A.D., it first served the Christian faith until the fall of Constantinople where it was then converted to a mosque. Once Ataturk took control after the Ottoman Empire, in a bid to create a secular Turkey he made the Hagia Sophia a museum. Plaster was removed uncovering the Christian mosaics.